CANCELLED – FREE Courtroom Concert featuring Tjärnblom

For the safety of our patrons and in keeping with guidance from state officials, Schubert Club has made the decision to cancel performances through April 15 as a preventative action against the spread of COVID-19 in our community Ticket holders will be contacted by email and phone with details. More information >>

About the Artists:

Founded in 2009, Tjärnblom is a Scandinavian-style string band featuring a unique blend of nyckelharpa, mandolin, cello and harmonium. They travel a modern “Snoose Boulevard Highway” in a musical journey, playing a repertoire of both old and new Swedish, Finnish, Minnesota and original tunes for dancing and listening in arrangements that reflect their musical sensibilities, joy of playing together and the collective magic of being swept away by the melodies they love. The name Tjärnblom is Swedish for “woodland lake flower.”

Tjärnblom has performed in concerts, at events, festivals and for special occasions across the Twin Cities, including the American Swedish Institute, Lake Harriet Bandshell, Nicollet Island Pavilion, Nisswa-Stämman Folk Music Festival, Rambling River Center, Lakewood Cemetery Chapel, Icehouse, Bryant Lake Bowl, Eagles Club Aerie 34, Loring Park Art Festival, Minnesota History Center, Bloomington Historical Society, Gammelgården, Hosmer Library, Linden Hills Library, Open Book, Sokol Hall, Landmark Center, Knights of Columbus – Bloomington, KFAI Radio, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Historic Wesley Center, Peace Presbyterian Church, Prospect Park United Methodist Church, Pilgrim Lutheran Church, St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church, VFW Golden Valley, Mayflower Congregational UCC Church, and Holy Nativity Lutheran Church. Road trip performance locations include Bethany Lutheran College – Mankato, Bagley Arts Collaborative Concert – Bagley, Isanti County Historical Society – Cambridge, Wynett Hall – Princeton and Swedish American Heritage Museum – Swedesburg, Iowa.

Performance Highlight and Recordings
• Prairie Home Companion’s LIVE Independence Day Broadcast,
July 4, 2015 – Macalester College Great Lawn, St. Paul, MN
• Minnesota Fiddle Tunes Project – Compilation CD, 3 tracks (2011)
CD Release Concert at Heart of the Beast Theatre
• Nicollet Island Waltz – Tjärnblom CD (2013)
CD Release Concert at Bryant Lake Bowl
• Starry-Eyed CD – Tjärnblom CD (2017)
CD Release Concert at American Swedish Institute

Members of the band are Erin Walsh, cello and bells, Joe Alfano, mandolin and guitar, Val Eng, harmonium and Cheryl Paschke, nyckelharpa.

Cheryl Paschke started playing violin in the fourth grade after attending a school assembly program about joining the school orchestra. She did join the school orchestra, which later led to college and community orchestras, a string quartet, English country-dance band, Swedish fiddle and Finnish dance groups as well as a career in music and arts education. Cheryl started playing nyckelharpa as an adult, having first encountered the instrument in Sweden at a Midsommar celebration where several nyckelharpa players were jamming together. Seeing Cheryl’s interest, one of the players offered to let her ‘try’ the instrument. After a quick scale to check what notes were where, “Johan pa Snippen” came to mind, and her fingers were hooked!

Joe Alfano mowed many lawns when he was 10 years old in order to buy his first guitar. He graduated to bass guitar in his garage band days and eventually he gave up music to raise a family and become an elementary school teacher. One day while cleaning out his basement he came across his bass guitar and amplifier and decided to trade them off at a local music store. A few hours later Joe walked out of the music store with a 1913 Gibson mandolin and has not looked back since. He has played in several folk bands and many folk traditions. Joe and Cheryl met in 1998 after a Väsen concert and she opened the door to Scandinavian music for him. Joe plays guitar and two sizes of mandolin.

Erin Walsh is a multi-instrumentalist who chose cello as a young girl because she liked the sound of harmony parts. Soon she was singing melodies and playing cello harmony at the same time, when not busy putting on extravagant dance performances to her parents’ classical records. Now she enjoys community orchestra, and plays in: Compass Rose String Band (at Tapestry Folkdance Center), Twin Cities Nyckelharpalag, the ASI Spelmanslag, Fallen From the Turnip Truck (roots music), and is a former performer with the Ethnic Dance Theatre. She is an elementary string music teacher, private string and piano teacher, and clinician. Her country home houses a diverse collection of instruments, including five-string fiddle, banjo, cajon, upright bass, accordion, näverlur, musical saw, alto horn, shawm, and many more. Her secret passion is composing music of all types, and she keeps staff paper in her car just in case of a random idea!

Val Eng began her church music career at age twelve and has been music director for various area churches, most recently for a Hispanic congregation. She’s deeply attracted to folk music, is a shape-note singer, and discovered that Nordic music makes her “Norwegian blood boil’ by dancing to it. She’s a piano teacher and provides music for area arts camps.

About the Host:

Composer Abbie Betinis writes music called “inventive, richly melodic” (The New York Times), “superb, whirling, soaring” (Tacoma News Tribune), and “the highlight” of the program (Boston Globe).  With over 50 commissioned works for ensembles such as Cantus, the New England Philharmonic, and The Rose Ensemble, Abbie is also a two-time McKnight Artist Fellow, and has won grants from the American Composers Forum, ASCAP, and Jerome Foundation, and at age 31, was listed in NPR Music’s Top 100 Composers Under 40.  Abbie has been a Composer-in-Residence with New York State School Music Association, The Rose Ensemble, The Singers-Minnesota Choral Artists, and Schubert Club. In 2019, she will be the American Composers Forum’s ChoralQuest composer, visiting schools around the U.S. to write new choral music with middle school singers. 

Originally from Wisconsin, Abbie is a graduate of St. Olaf College (B.A.), the University of Minnesota (M.A.), and holds a diplôme from the European American Musical Alliance Institute in Paris, France. She lives in Minnesota, where she is Adjunct Professor of Composition at Concordia University-St Paul and executive director of Justice Choir.

View the Frequently Asked Questions about the Courtroom Concerts.

Seating is limited and first come first served. Doors open at 11:30. Please call if you are attending as a group of 10 or more (651.292.3267).

Schedule & Programs Subject to Change